The story we read for this assignment, "The Way You'll Never Be", was extremely interesting to me. On the surface, it represented a divergence from the type of Nick Adams story we have been reading, with simple prose and, especially, sparsely worded dialogue. The prose in this story is a bit more detailed, if only because it gives war terminology, and the dialogue is much more complex than the general one or two lines given to us in previous stories. Moreover, "The Way You'll Never Be" includes much more of a glimpse into the mind of Nick (or Nicholas, here.) The view into his mind that we see is frightening, and adds credence to the idea that the more complex dialogue and prose represent a Nick that has grown up, both in years and maturity. One of the most specific contrasts between this Nicholas and the Nicky of younger years I saw is the difference of Nicholas, here, after being shot and seeing the destruction of war, against Nicky after he has seen the violent birth and suicide in "Indian Camp." There, he felt as if he would never die, which means that, ultimately, the experience had little effect on him. In this story, however, Nicholas is experiencing post-traumatic stress, which emphasizes that he has been severely affected by all he has been through and seen. This is rather stark contrast, and it certainly, above all else, portrays the maturing of Nicholas from the stories that we have previously read.
Perhaps another one of the reasons I enjoyed this story was due to its adherence to something beyond the conventional. I mean, most of Hemingway's work was not conventional, whether it be because of breaching sensitive subjects or using simply narration, but this story seems to have another dimension to it. More specifically, it is quite confusing. Nick's perspective shifts often, from reality to dreams to memory, and there is little in the prose to demarcate these changes. Moreover, namely in the dreams/daydreams, the prose is confusing and unexplained. For example, on page 310 there is a stream of consciousness of a past time Nick had spent on patrol. It takes the form of a memory, but even within this memory there are shifts from pure stream of consciousness ("They'd all be worse. Break his nose. They've put it back to five-twenty. We've only got four minutes more.), to memory ("... you called me baby doll a year ago tadada..."), to reflection ("He never dreamed about the front now any more...".) There is so much going on here that it is difficult to take it all in or understand much of it. The same phenomenon happens when Nick talks about grasshoppers starting on 312, and when he talks with Para about war matters which we, as the readers, have to do with their history, which we are not given the details of. All of this acts to create a rather hazy tone over the story, one that makes it hard to truly understand what is going on. This is so interesting to me because I see it as a reflection of Nick's mental state. He has gone through trauma in the war, and this has brought chaos to his mind. The sudden shifting of time in the story is a reflection of this, and works to give the reader a confused experience that relates to the mindset of Nick. I love this aspect, as it provides a whole new dimension to the reading. Where some prose is purely for reading, it seems as if this is for feeling, as well.
The confusion of Nick is semi-comical at a couple parts, such as when he asserts to the adjutant that he, "would rather talk about grasshoppers"(312.) As I read on, however, I came to realize that Nick's dialogue is far from comical. Indeed, it portrays a man who is dealing with post-traumatic stress, or "it/one/", as is explained on page 314 with, "'I can tell when I'm going to have on because I talk so much'." This realization struck me hard because it presented such a departure from the 'Nicky' of the earlier stories we have read. He was so carefree in those short narratives, and it was extremely disheartening to realize that this was the same boy, only grown up and dealing with the horrors of a war that actually happened. I'm assuming that the war in this story was based off of World War I, and it really struck me that this war that Hemingway fictionalized, and its effects on soldiers, had such true roots. Literally, my stomach clenched a little as I thought back to the other stories that we have read, and how Nick's problems have progressed from heartbreak at losing Prudence to death and helmets full of brains. Having someone's life so laid out in front of us in the form of anecdotes really made me relate it to the lives of actual soldiers who fought in the war. They had the same innocence that Nick did, and, likewise, were made to suffer the same realities that Nick had to deal with, with the same consequences. How terribly enlightening. While I am, by nature, fascinated by literature and the thoughts it leaves when you finish reading, few stories have struck me and made me think as much as this one did. Truly, "A Way You'll Never Be" made me realize how much about war I cannot, and will hopefully never, be able to comprehend, and how different the perspective is of people who have gone through it. I think this is the point that Hemingway may have been trying to emphasize, and he definitely succeeded in making me realize it.
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